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The Whale parade is on pause, but Dana Point still plans a huge festival

February 22, 2025

Dana Point’s iconic Festival of Whales parade, with its massive helium sea creature balloons, is canceled for this year and will be replaced by a three-day carnival.

The decision to pause the signature event — which has been part of the Festival of Whales since 1971 and typically draws thousands of people — was prompted by construction of a parking structure that is part of Dana Point Harbor’s $550 million makeover.

“We’ve looked at the traffic in the harbor and we couldn’t find a way to make it work,” said Jeff Rosaler, Dana Point’s director of community services.

“Hopefully, the parking structure will be done next year. During the pause, we’ll take a look at how we manage and implement the parade and make it the best it can be for next year.”

While the parade route has shifted over the years — including traveling down Pacific Coast Highway from Selva Road to La Plaza Park — it’s recently been held at the harbor. And Rosaler said reverting it back to PCH poses numerous challenges, including closing the highway on a Saturday and getting the huge parade balloons under the Lantern District archway.

Most recently, the parade — which kicks off the festival — sent a line of high school marching bands, ocean-themed entries, military and local non-profit groups from harbor Island, over the bridge, and then down Dana Point Harbor Drive. A final right turn, onto the Street of the Golden Lantern, took participants to the parking lots at the harbor’s entrance, where about 40 community booths and non-profits set up for the after-party.

“Golden Lantern is shut down to traffic and we’d have a road closure in the middle of our parade,” Rosaler said of the current situation.

The parking structure is the first landside renovation in an overall $550 million harbor project undertaken by the Dana Point Harbor Partners. In 2018, the developers signed a 66-year lease with the county to manage the now 60-year-old harbor.

Other improvements include a new 2,265-slip marina, a boutique-style hotel and surf lodge, and new buildings and public gathering spaces to house some existing and new restaurants and shops. Dana Wharf and its buildings also will get a makeover. The makeover is aimed at turning the harbor — already popular with visitors — into one of the county’s bigger tourist draws.

The Festival of Whales, now in its 54th year, takes place March 7-9. The event was founded as a tribute to the thousands of gray whales that pass through the region each year during their annual migration between Alaska and lagoons in southern Baja California. Experts say the marine mammals use the towering rock outcrop near Dana Point Harbor as a navigational point during their two-way migration, making the area an excellent place for whale watching.

The late Don Hansen, considered the father of whale watching in Orange County, started the festival, said his daughter, Donna Kalez, who operates Dana Wharf Sport Fishing and Whale Watching. Kalez, who had participated in the whale parade for decades, said she was especially moved in 2022, when the city of Dana Point paid tribute to her father after his death.

“That was the most memorable, when the city gave my family the float to honor him,” she said.

But the parade has marked other significant milestones in Kalez’ life, such as when she was honored as Citizen of the Year, and the year her father served as Grand Marshall, and the year she and Gisele Anderson — who operates Capt. Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari in the harbor — trademarked Dana Point as the Dolphin and Whale Watching Capitol.

“The parade holds a special place in my heart. It’s not just another event but a cherished memory that we will continue,” Kalez said.

And even though the parade is on pause, Kalez said she’s amped about the carnival that Dana Point is staging as a parade alternative.

It will be set up at Lantern Bay Park, just above Dana Point Harbor. Festivities will start at 3 p.m., after most of the daytime festival events wrap up, and end at 10 p.m. There will be a Ferris wheel and other rides, and the Pet Project Foundation, which raises money for the Dana Point and San Clemente animal shelter, will hold its usual beer garden.

“We’re very thankful to the city for stepping up and coming up with this carnival in place of the parade because they know how much the community loves the parade,” Kalez said. “They wanted to put something on that’s even better.”

“I think you’ll find all your favorite nonprofits up at the carnival,” she added.

“And you’ll see me there for sure, just not on the Ferris wheel because I am very scared of heights.”

Orange County Register

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The Whale parade is on pause, but Dana Point still plans a huge festival

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